Why did I make a workbench?

I never use it. Just sits there accumulating junk (and these days, spiders). I remember being so excited about making one but alas it was for naught.If I had to do it again I think I could’ve used another cabinet.Seriously thinking of moving the bench to where the outfeed table is and making a new storage cabinet in it’s place.I do 95% of my work on the melamine covered outfeed table and if I had of placed my vise on the outfeed table I suspect it would of even been higher .Must be due to having little in the way of them tools that don’t have an on/off switch, no?I have 1 block plane and a hand-full of chisels.

I understand. We all start there. It simply comes down to what type of woodworking YOU want to be doing. If you envision yourself using that great bench with nice handtools, then move forward towards that. You say you have a few chisels and a block plane? Hey, that’s exactly what I started with a decade ago! Find a reason to use those few tools in your building process and viola! you have a reason to use your bench!

Just keep incorporating processes in to your furniture making that force you to use that beautiful bench and work on growing your hand tool collection as you can.

Brian- I know where your coming from. I do the same amout of stuff on my melamine out feed table too! I still like working sometime at the bench that I made when I was 14 (has had 3 tops though). I like using chisels, planes and stuff with my William and Hussey vise that I got in the early 80’s that now has been discontinued. I see in your picture one hellofa patternmakers vise on that bench, and I agree with akstudio that one day you’ll catch the fever.

like was mentioned here – it really depends on the type of woodworking you do. if you dont really find yourself using it – then most likely you don’t necessarily need it (for what it is).

whether you think you need it, or think you don’t need it – you’re right!

personally I do ALL my work on my workbench, but thats also because aside from milling parts on powertools roughly – the rest of the work is with handtools. also for routing I use my workbench as it can grasp my work pieces very well. but as I said – that’s personal, and that’s how I work. you obviously do things differently.

I can see it’s a great looking workbench. You can always send it to me here in Dayton, I’d be glad to take it off your hands, lol. You have a nice set You have a nice setup though. Give it time and I’m sure you’ll get into it

Brian,I understand your dillemma. Before building my workbench, I read The Workbench Book cover to cover. One of the major themes of the book was to decide what your woodworking processes consisted of, then build the functionality they required into the bench. In my case, I do utilize both hand and power tools but have to admit that most vise-equipped workbenches are really “workstations” for hand tool usage. When using chisels and planes for handwork, and some routing operations, I’m at my workbench. However, when sanding, laying out, and gluing up, I’m usually using a worktable that’s a fairly large piece of MDF on top of folding saw horses. (Have a small shop, so all of my machines and worktables need to be movable).You may decide to build a new workbench/worktable that assists with the operations you most commonly perform in building your pieces (very beautifully I might add-did look at your projects and Maloof rocker blog).Just my two cents on your topic.

The outfeed table attracts woodworking assemblage for the same reason a house party always congregates in the kitchen. Theres room to move around and everythings right there! Thats my theory and i’m sticking to it.

-- "The way to make a small fortune in woodworking- start with a large one"

I think it’s simple really. You got all your junk on the bench and nothing on the outfeed table. Which one would you use? Clear the junk and put it anywhere else then move the bench away from the wall and KEEP IT CLEAR OF JUNK. It’s not a storage place. You need to use it. It’s much more sturdy than a melamine covered table at least it looks like it. You need to be able to get all around it to really get the usage out of it. If it is made well then you will find it much more useful than the other table.

I guess realistically that a woodworking bench unless you use it to hold work in progress and pieces of wood for shaping using largely hand tools is almost inevitably going to be used as just another storage and work surface.

It’s a bit of an issue with setting up a shop, and one i’m in the middle of right now. I’ve found it’s taken me nearly a month to plough my way through the selection of kit, and given my lack of experience with the stuff i’ll probably find when i get it that in my case too there will be at least some (hopefully not a lot) that doesn’t get used.

I’ve found myself trying to predict the type of work i’ll be doing, and to extract from that the sort of processes and methods relevant to it. After that it’s tough to select tools and equipment – it all claims to be the best, but of course isn’t. Yet when as i do you live several days mail order from suppliers you can’t realistically avoid buying until you need stuff.